Trying out Ubuntu Studio 10.04

So I switched over from Linux Mint to Ubuntu Studio the other day and I must say I'm really liking it. Although it doesn't provide a LiveCD and its installer won't win any beauty pageant awards, the final product is very professional, fast, and lightweight.

Here are a few tweaks I made right away:

1. Changed keyboard shortcut for Desktop to {Windows Key} + D. You can do this by going to System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts and then in the Window Management section click on Hide all windows and focus desktop. Once selected, you just click the {Windows Key} + D combination to set the new shortcut.

2. I set the title bar action to maximize on double-click (standard Windows behavior). You change this by going to System > Preferences > Windows and then in the "Titlebar Action" dropdown change it to "Maximize"

3. I like how the desktop and menu bar are so clean and empty. I did, however, add the audio controls and Desktop shortcut to the menu bar for easy access (especially considering Ubuntu Studio defaults audio to 'mute' which is a pain to troubleshoot if you don't know this ahead of time). To add buttons to your menu bar (along the top of the screen), right click the menu bar, select 'Add to Panel...' and then choose the items you want. 'Show Desktop' and 'Lock Screen' are options in the list. Use 'Application Launcher...' to choose System > Preferences > Sound for adding the sound control and Accessories > Terminal because Linux will inevitably require you to run a command line every now and then.

4. Open Firefox and install Adblock Plus, Flash-Aid, Flashblock, Firebug, Clear Cache, Firecookie, Dojo Firebug Extension, NetExport, Page Speed, YSlow, Rainbow Color Tools, and NoScript.

5. Tried to add my Canon i550 printer (System > Administration > Printing) because it showed up in the list when I clicked the 'Add...' button, but it couldn't find a driver for my printer so I had to select an alternate driver as discussed here. Note: the CUPS and Gutenprint software are pre-loaded on Ubuntu Studio so you don't have to install them separately (like you did in Linux Mint).

6. Install and configure ClamTK (on-demand anti-virus). Note: Many Linux enthusiasts insist you don't need antivirus, but I still feel more comfortable having an on-demand AV scanner available.

7. Install unrar (sudo apt-get install unrar)

8. Install K3b (Brasero didn't recognize one of my DVD burners and I don't really like its user interface anyways).

9. Install restricted formats (make sure to run the "sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh" command as well)

10. Install FBReader (for reading *.epub documents)

11. Install sysinfo (sudo apt-get install sysinfo)

12. Install Pinta (sudo apt-get install pinta)

...I'm sure I'll find plenty more to tweak in the weeks ahead...

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